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The Magic of Reality
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Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
The whole thing is a tempest in a teapot, though. Yeah, there's nothing particularly special about our star, and even if there were, then of course it would be such that we could develop here. We did, after all, develop here.
There's a much more effective argument that's similar that has to do with the various constants in the universe allowing baryonic matter to exist in such a way that planets and stars can form in the first place.
The weak anthropic principle has a much more difficult time answering that one unless there are multiple "universes" with different constants - you need more than one monkey to make the case for shakespeare being no big deal.
Mind you, I doubt very much that a monotheist-style invisible friend is the correct answer to the question of, "why does the universe support us," but it is a much more difficult question than anything involving just our sun.
Permalink Thu, 22 May 2008 15:11:00 UTC | #174386